Hej och hjärtligt välkomna ska ni vara till Investor Update. Idag med gruvbolaget Arctic Minerals som med sin senaste publicerade nyhet från prospekteringsområdet Dingelvik i Dalsland återigen satt Arctic Minerals och svensk potentiell gruvbrytning i fokus. Ni som tittar live kan som alltid interagera med ledningen och den som presenterar genom att ställa frågor i chattfältet. Den här sändningen som fokuserar då på det senaste pressmeddelandet kommer då egentligen vara öppen för frågor redan nu. Ni kan börja skriva dem redan nu då. Och även om Peter George förstår och talar svenska så kommer presentationen nu att fortsätta på engelska. Så without further ado, hello Peter, how are you?
Hello, hello Carlo, good to see you again. Yes, that's mutual. So, very busy January for you. This very, in my world, very positive announcement out of Dingelvik. Did that surprise you or was it according to plan? And could you just walk us through the news and what it's, in your opinion, it means for the company and indeed for yourself as a shareholder?
Yeah, look, it's, I guess it's difficult to say you really expected any results, particularly when they come through. But I think it's within our expectations as to what we're seeing because I think we put out our 55 million ton resource in March of 2025. We wanted to, you know, utilize this latest technology being the MMT or magnetotelluric geophysical technology, which we can talk a little bit more about, to really help us hone in on where we believed the mineralization was continuing. Because we can see on the ground there that, you know, we have a large area of outcropping mineralization within our 402 square kilometer tenement package. So we always knew that we had a big project on our hands, but it was up to us to be able to demonstrate that to the market.
Our first step, as mentioned, was to put out a 55 million ton resource of 1% copper equivalent and then come up with a method for how we could demonstrate to everybody that it was bigger. And obviously we need to drill. Drilling is an expensive exercise, as everybody can imagine. But what this has done for us is it's a proof of concept now that utilizing this technology, we can really hone in on the areas that are flashing up red within the geophysical survey and we can focus our drilling on those particular areas. So I think from that point of view, I'm not surprised, but I'm still very excited about the fact that we do have this proof of concept and that we have a very clear way forward now.
If we dig in a little bit more on the announcement here, could you briefly and perhaps even for a layman as myself, explain what type of geophysical study you have completed at Hännesberget here?
Yeah, well, look, an MMT survey or a magnetotelluric survey, as it's called, it's a passive geophysical method that maps the Earth's subsurface electrical resistivity by measuring natural fluctuations in the planet's magnetic and electrical fields, i.e., created by things like lightning or things like that. And this reveals geological structures, mineral deposits, geothermal potential, perhaps even crustal architecture from shallow to deep mantle depths. So it really gives us, you know, I think in some examples that they've had in other parts of the world, we give quite a clear view down to 1000 meters below Earth. And at the moment, or sorry, prior to us doing this, you know, we really only had a, I think our deepest drilling was around about 300 meters. So it gives us a very good idea now as to what we're dealing with at surface and at depth.
As you mentioned, the depth here, because I have one, I think, shareholder who asked me, so how does it help you to identify potential mineralization? So am I right then to understand that from the surface and down to 1000 meters, you have a pretty good understanding of what you have in the area? Is that the way to look at it?
That's definitely the way to look at it. Look, I'm a mining engineer by profession, and I'm a geologist or a geophysicist, so I won't insult them by going into the technical details of how that all works. But it does give us a very strong indication of where we should be putting our drill holes going forward. Absolutely.
Yeah. So basically you get some, I shouldn't say some, but you get some very accurate intelligence on what you have in the ground that will focus, will give you the, let's say, point the way on where you are going to focus your asset allocation, basically.
Absolutely, and I think I've got a slide here, which perhaps we can bring up, so this was taken one of the figures out of the announcement. If you could perhaps bring that one up and show the viewers, so what we started with at Hännesberget was you could see here, I'm not sure, can you see my cursor as that's moving around?
Yeah.
Dingelvik, that's where the 55 million tons that we delineated back in March. But this new survey technique, what it's actually doing is it's, what we believe it's doing is it's focusing in on where the high-grade copper potential could be sitting. And we believe we have a proof of concept for that because we have at Dingelvik and obviously a number of other areas at Hännesberget and so on, where we have the 14,000 meters of drilling that was done by the Swedish state going back into the fifties. And then when you sort of dig down deeper into that proof of concept, you can actually see that where the drilling, and so this is the yellow area here is the MMT survey, and you can see that they line up quite nicely with some of the high-grade drilling intercepts that we have.
So what that does for us is that when we start doing all of our drilling planning, it makes it an awful lot easier for us to ensure that our shareholder funds are spent in the most efficient way.
Yeah. And if I may just jump into the timeline here, because you were referring to shareholder funds being efficiently spent here. If I understand it correctly, you have a timeline of one drill rig on 2026, two on 2027, and then a feasibility study during 2028. So does this in any way alter the timeline or does it just confirm what you're doing? How should we in the share, well, in the stock market interpret this?
Yeah, so before we did the MMT survey, obviously we had a very good idea as to what we were dealing with Dingelvik. As I mentioned, there's also another, sorry, there was 10,000 meters worth of drilling in Dingelvik, and then there was another 4,000 meters spread around Hennes Bay and Åslebyn and Baldersnäs, etc. So we have a fairly reasonable idea as to where the mineralization is. And then of course you can also see in this particular picture here, this red line that goes through, this is the actual outcropping mineralization at surface. So we know that this is a large system. And then we tie that together with the drilling results that we have, plus the geophysical information that we have. It makes a lot easier for us to plan.
But what we did before we had the MMT results come through was that we had a 4,000-meter drilling program, which we started to put our applications in before Christmas. And that was focused around expanding the known resource at Dingelvik, bringing the historic resource at Hännesberget and Åslebyn and a few other places into JORC compliance, which is basically the standard that we need to operate to with the level of geological compliance and standards that we need to work to when we report on our numbers. So that 4,000 meters drilling program, we hope to start that soon. We're just waiting on a few more approvals to come through before we start. But I believe we've gone out to drilling companies and asked for prices. So that's how close we're getting.
What this new information does for us is that will now start the planning for our next phase of drilling beyond the 4,000 meters, which I mean, we've got some new areas in here, such as Hennervik and East, which none of that outcrops, but we can actually see it underneath the granites now because of the geophysical work that we've been doing. I mean, and that looks even bigger than what Dingelvik does. We can see that Hennervik and Åslebyn actually join together quite strongly, even though there was only a small amount of drilling up at Hennervik and a smaller in the southern part in Åslebyn. You can see how now it's a lot easier for us to make a larger plan going forward.
But I guess back to your question as to when we will be starting to drill. As mentioned, the 4,000-meter drilling program—hopefully we'll start quite soon. Hopefully we will be able to get all of our drilling applications in and then continue that drilling program rolling on once that first one finishes.
As a segue, when you refer to permits and applications during, let's say, the last 24 months here, have you seen any change in the attitude from the authorities, be it the municipals and the government and so on, when it comes to this sector? There's been a lot of positive talk, but do they talk the talk, but do they walk the walk?
Yeah, well, I mean, obviously time will tell, but I think, but perhaps this is a good slide to refer to in that regard there. I mean, it is a long and complicated process that we need to go through to turn a project like Hännesberget from a, well, a project generation, as you can see on the left-hand side, all the way through to production. And I guess we classify Hännesberget as an advanced exploration project now going into the development phase. So we already completed the underground conceptual study midway through last year, which was highly positive, suggesting that we've got a 3-4 million ton per annum project there for at least a decade, potentially more at 1% copper equivalent.
And that information is then going to roll into our preliminary economic analysis or our scoping study, as we call it in Australia, which is then, of course, then rolls into our feasibility studies as we move further down the track. So it hasn't really sped anything up as far as this new information coming through. And then on top of that, I guess back to your question, have we seen the government speeding things up? And I'd say, look, as you mentioned, there's been an awful lot of talk about it. How they're going to help us in that regard, I'm not 100% sure yet. I guess I don't like to compare myself too often to other companies, but Viscaria went through this particular process, I think in 2018, had a similar sized resource to us.
And now, six, seven years later, are basically on the doorstep of moving into production. And in a pretty, I think what is recognized as a pretty tough time for mining companies to get their projects approved. So I'd like to think that things are going to be smoother. And I do hear a lot of chatter, especially coming back from Ebba Busch with regards to speeding up the permitting process and putting time limits on things like the department such as the Mines Department or Bergsstaten. So fingers crossed that I think that things will get better and I think that they are improving. But in saying that, I've been going backwards and forwards to Sweden for the last 30 years in my career.
I have to admit that this is probably the most bullish that I've ever seen in the Swedish mining industry at the moment, which is fantastic for us and for our shareholders.
Yeah. And so if I just summarize what you were saying there is that, A, when it comes to your previous assumptions of Hännesberget, you were referring to, let's say, historical data and you combined that with, let's say, the history of the permit situation. But now with this latest report and also with, let's say, the acknowledgement from authorities and municipalities and so on, if anything, things are looking up. So if we go back to the press release, you mentioned that the newly identified target areas are up to 10 times larger than the previously defined Dingelvik resources. So what does that mean in practical terms for the project's potential then if we go back to your announcement?
Yeah. Well, look, it's actually better than that. So the 10 times that I'm referring to is, so as you can see here, this is Dingelvik again. So if you extrapolate what the target area or the resource area that we have for Dingelvik, extrapolate that to the surface, basically just on the area where we've done the MMT survey, we believe we have at least 10 times more of a target area than what we started with Dingelvik. So of course, you can use your own imagination to understand what that means. But then I say it's actually better than that because if you have a quick look at this particular slide here, so this area here in blue, that's the area that we actually flew with the helicopter in Ubeck last year. And that's only 34% of the tenement package.
And as you can see, these red lines that come down through here, this is the mineralization outcropping at surface. And we've got very high-grade copper and silver mineralization outcropping on our tenement package to the south of this area and obviously to the north of this area as well. So we expect that this 10 times increase in target area is going to increase significantly on top of that.
If I just continue here with questions that I received, with the latest announcement in mind, what is a realistic tonnage and grade that you can expect from the Henners Bay project before you start mining and how long until you can get it into production here? You touched upon production there, but if we look at the grades and the tonnage.
Yeah.
How much would you be able to tell us at this point?
I mean, I'm obviously very restricted in what I can say because I'm governed, first of all, by the JORC code with regards to what I can and can't say, but also I can't give misleading information. But I think it's important from my perspective. We've got the 55 million tons here. We've got a target area, which is 10 times larger than that 55 million tons. We've only surveyed 34% of the tenement package that we have, expecting that 10 times to grow significantly more. So in my mind, I would expect a relatively high portion of that to be converted over to a resource, obviously pending successful drilling and all of these sorts of things. So I suspect we won't start 55 million tons for much longer.
I can't put a number on it, but I guess I can leave that up to you guys to work that out for yourselves. But as far as timing is concerned, yeah, like I said, Viscaria, I think they've taken six, seven years to get themselves up to production ready. I think that we can probably do a very similar timeframe within the next five to six years, move through the gears, grow our resource. In my mind, where I want to get the resource to is probably up over that 200 to 300 million ton mark. I think that we have the geology for it. Yet to be proven, obviously.
Given the location of the ore, which is relatively close to surface, I'm very excited by the results that came out of the conceptual underground study last year, basically meaning that we can decline down in ore and be producing ore from day one rather than having to go off and build a significant underground decline system before we're creating an awful lot of cost for the company before we even get started. I think there are an awful lot of positives for us.
And obviously, when you have a company presenting, everybody's looking for what to expect on the next quarter, but given the fact of the nature of the business here, where you're referring to seven years and five years here. But in my humble opinion, I think that the last year for Arctic was, well, things were moving on quite fast as far as announcements were concerned. What would you like us in the stock market to, A, look for? And with that, I mean, what kind of news would be relevant? And what can we expect during the year from you? And the third question here, just to confuse you a little bit here, does this mean that it will be all eyes and all focus on Dalsland and Hännesberget?
Well, okay, so first questions first. Look, I think what to watch out for with us is that everybody needs to be aware, we haven't drilled a hole yet, so basically everything that we've done has been based on historical information. This work that we've done now is hopefully demonstrating that we think that we've got at least 10 times larger system than what we originally said we had at our resource at Dingelvik, and given that it's only 34% of the actual tenement package, that it could be significantly larger than that as far as the target is concerned, so like I said, I want to get this up to a very high tonnage mine, and once you get into the 200 and 300 million tons, you're into world-class territory.
But the exciting thing about that is that with this style of mineralization, with the sediment-hosted deposits that we have here, which are very similar to Kupferschiefer and these sorts of things, is that the drilling spacing that we need to do between holes is a lot wider to achieve an inferred resource than, say, what you would have at a VMS, a volcanogenic massive sulfide style deposit, or an IOCG style deposit. So I think for Dingelvik, we're using 500 meters, but I think that some of our compatriots, such as down in the Kupferschiefer or over in White Pine over in the U.S., they're up to over 1,000 meters between drill holes, simply because of the consistency of the mineralization. So you can estimate larger resources quite quickly. So in some respects, it's a little bit scary, the sort of numbers that I'm talking about.
But I believe that with this style of mineralization, the work that we've done in the last 12 months, getting ourselves taking the historic information, applying the new technology, and bringing it into the 21st century, and then now we're basically set up to start drilling and to really add some serious tonnage to this particular project. So that's really what the investors need to start looking for. So as I've already hinted, we should be starting drilling quite soon. Sorry, what was the next question?
Yeah. And well, the last one was really, "Does this mean that you will focus, well, solely on Hännesberget?" You were referring previously here to allocating the shareholder assets and so on and so forth.
Yeah. No, and that's a really good question. So look, Hännesberget, look, by far the majority of the value in the share price would be attributed to Hännesberget at this particular point in time. But geez, we've got some absolutely ripper projects in the rest of our portfolio as well. We have Bidjovagge, which many long-standing Arctic shareholders will know well. It's no longer our number one project within the company, which is perfect for it. But the geology and the potential upside in Bidjovagge is amazing. It is one of the, I reckon it has the potential to be one of the largest gold projects in the Nordics, gold and copper projects in the Nordics. So it's very exciting from that point of view.
And we're doing an awful lot of work in the background, and we'll start coming out with some more news on that as things move forward. So don't discount Bidjovagge as potentially being able to add a lot of value to the share price. And then, of course, we have Swan Lake and Kuusi. Kuusi we haven't done too much work on, but Swan Lake, I think we went out before Christmas and we announced that we were doing our IP survey. I'm just waiting on the final bits of information to come out before we can put that information out there to the market. But again, this is a project that sits in between Aitik and Laver, probably the two of the largest projects that Boliden has up in the north.
We've got the ground in between, and the geology is suggesting that we have another potential large copper gold system sitting there. We're in a very good situation as far as that's concerned. Definitely the focus is on Hännesberget, but don't discount these other particular projects as having the potential to add significant value as we go forward.
There's an interesting potential outside Henners Bay, although all eyes are currently on Henners Bay here. Where shall we put you? Obviously you're now prospecting here, but what would you aim for? Would you be a developer or a producer? How far would you go down the line?
Yeah. I think you could definitely start to classify us as a developer now. We're moving into the conceptual studies, the feasibility studies, or I guess the pre-feasibility studies and preliminary economic analysis. Those jobs have already started. We're already starting work on all of the permitting with regards to the mining permit and then, of course, the environmental permit that comes in. And that's a lot of work that has to go in in the background to determine the baseline studies for the flora and the fauna and for the cultural aspects of what we have down in Dalsland. So I'd like to think that we could classify ourselves as a developer now. And my aim is obviously to take this thing all the way through to production. I mean, as a mining engineer, I've done this before, so it doesn't scare me.
These are the sorts of exciting projects that come across your career maybe once or twice.
And well, as a segue to that, what's your cash position and do you need more capital soon? You had a timeline before this positive news. And then how should we look at the timeline versus the cash position?
Yeah, look, I think we're relatively healthy on the cash at the moment. I think we have SEK 15-20 million in the bank, kroner that is, and that fully funds the 4,000-meter drilling program and all the geophysics work that we've got going forward. So as I stated a few months back, that's all scheduled in and paid for. Obviously, sometime next year, or sorry, this year now, there will be a need for more funds. But hopefully we can get the share price up an awful lot higher before that happens.
And if we refer to, well, the share price, the fact that you're in the board and the fact that you are a shareholder, are you for sale at this moment?
Yeah, look, you know that I can't answer that question. Everything is for sale for the right price, obviously. But our intention is to take this project, all our projects, all the way through from where they are to into production. But I guess stepping out and looking from outside in, we're an obvious target for having what we have, especially if we can get this up to 200-300 million ton deposit at Hännesberget. There aren't too many of these that aren't already in the major's hands. So I guess you can make your own conclusions out of all of that.
And just to summarize here before we wrap it up here, is that, well, 2025 was at least, if you look outside to Arctic, was a very busy year when it comes to announcement and news-wise for you. And I get the feeling that you will continue, 2026 will continue to be, well, a very busy year where maybe the focus would be on Hennes Bay and where you will develop the world-class asset or the proof of a world-class asset. And then time will tell what will happen. Would you agree with my layman's summary there?
Yeah, look, I think so. I think it was 2025, we made some massive advances with the company. Like I said, we didn't actually do any of our own drilling yet. We did a lot of the background work, the geophysical work, the hard groundwork. We rebuilt the company. We've restructured the company. We've refinanced the company. We've changed the board, changed the management, and we have a fantastic team of people in there that have taken projects from where Hännesberget is today and companies where Arctic is today into multi-billion-dollar or even tens of billions of dollars, tens of billions of kroner worth for shareholders within a three- to five-year period. So look, I expect that we'll actually start coming out with more news in 2026 than what we did in 2025, mostly because we can actually start generating more news while we're drilling.
We're also going to be focusing on the permitting aspects. We'll be pushing our Swan Lake Project and our Bidjovagge Project quite hard as well. So yeah, look, just watch this space. I think we have an awful lot of good news, but I think we also have a lot of share price appreciation to come.
Well, thank you for that, Peter. And I believe that the company will grace Stockholm with some sort of appearance and non-deal roadshow here in the beginning of February. So we will then have an opportunity to see you in the flesh. Am I correct there?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, I'll be there soon.
All right. Cool. As always, a pleasure and very educational. So thank you very much, Peter.
Oh, thanks very much, Carlo. Good to see you again.
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